Why do you build models?

[clovis]

Yep, you read that correctly.

Why do you build? What exactly do you enjoy about the hobby that causes you to build and continue building?

Is it the challenge of improving your build or improving your skill set?

Is it the creativity in the model that causes you to build?

Do you just enjoy having completed models for your showcase?

What is it exactly???

[chevyfever2009]

Its a personal choice to build models some people do it for a hobby like myself some people take it to the extreme I build as I enjoy it its a hobby and a stress relief and lets you have your own time to do what you want granted now my three year old daughter likes to try and help me do my cars that's why me and her will be building some snaptite kits togather. And you can also use it to spend quality time with your kids or other half if there into building models

[RodneyBad]

Why not?

I just do..

[clovis]

Since I started the thread, maybe I should be one of the first:

I started building when I was a kid because it was fun, challenging, and because it was something to do to pass the time.

As I grew older, I began to realize how much I loved building WWII military tanks and aircraft. While I am a gear head at heart, my real passion is WWII history, and the models gave me the opportunity to delve into areas that I had deep interest in. Those models gave me a whole new dimension to the books that I had been reading, and helped me understand the subject matter on a much deeper basis.

I was nearly in seventh heaven when I built a 1/32 Corsair as a kid. I was literally spray painting the my model plane in the actual color that they were originally, and not laying across my bed reading about them in books from the library and looking at black and white photographs! And when I built a C-47 years ago, I was building the very plane that the 101st jumped out of on D-Day. Simply said, the models gave and have given a life to the history.

And most recently, I loved building a rusty Mustang with my daughter. It was fun to recreate and teach her about how many of the 60's Mustangs looked 25-30 years ago...just rusty, old cars.

I often find myself lost in thought while I build, and I love the "engineering learning" while building a model. As dumb as it sounds, I notice things and think of things about the model that I'm building. Yes, I day dream a lot while building.

As a silly side note, I don't enjoy the build afterwards. I am amazed by the large collections some builders have of their completed models, but if the house were burning down, I wouldn't run back in for a completed model. I would be desperate to get my 'box' of paint and supplies though!!!!! Weird, isn't it?

Edited January 22, 2014 by clovis

[charlie8575]

I started because of my dad and my need to learn eye-hand coordination.

Except for a few years when I had some real time and space constraints in my mid-late 20s, I've pretty much built constantly. Even during that time, I was still buying models and magazines, just had very little time or place to do much with them.

Now, with a grinding job search, dribbles of work here and there and a lot of sitting at home waiting for interviews that never come, it gives me something to do when I don't feel like reading or watching TV. I put a little music on and build something on the tray-table I have (and hope to have a little more space than that soon.) I'm setting up to start making some kits and seeing if I can make that into at least a sustainable part-time business and possibly, if things go well, a full-time venture.

Modeling is what helps me maintain some measure of sanity.

Charlie Larkin

[slusher]

I always admired my brothers models and once I started, I fell in love with the hobby and have never lost the desire...

[Speedfreak]

I love cars. A beautiful car is a work of art, so , when I'm building a model that's what I'm trying to bring forth in scale. And I just like getting small.

[FASTBACK340]

Geee… as a child growing up with a fascination of cars it was easier to build models than to convince my parents to let me drag home real cars.

That came much later in life…..

[cobraman]

I have been building models for over 50 years. My dad got me started. Together we built several kits of all types. I just carried on because I always enjoyed it. I have quit building at least twice but have returned. For me it's relaxing ( mostly ) and I enjoy seeing the finished product. It is also cool to be able to buy once again kits I built so many years ago. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs so I have to do something in addition to collecting Cobras. I also collect firearms and love to shoot but you can't do that around the house ( neighbors frown on that ) so building is the perfect hobby for me.

[FASTBACK340]

I also collect firearms and love to shoot but you can't do that around the house ( neighbors frown on that ) so building is the perfect hobby for me.

Move to Queens, N.Y. You wouldn't believe what goes on around here….

Obviously, we build because it takes us somewhere else. While I occasionally build a full-size one from time to time, the small ones are much easier on the wallet, and back…. when swapping a 12 cylinder Allison into a Mini Cooper.

[rmvw guy]

I think of my models as real cars. I am extremely wealthy with over 150 cars in my barn. They started out as toys but, became real at some point in my life. They take me down memory lane often times and other times take me to world where I can afford to have any car I want. I think of past friendships and other people's rides, often building them. Sometimes I just think, "Well if Jay Leno was on my budget!" He is my age by the way so, that makes us on the same playing field, sort of. My wife reads all the time and I sometimes tell her my models are like her books.

[FASTBACK340]

Wow, Ron, your post could have been written by me. Aside from the model building perspective, my Wife too is an avid reader. She can finish a book within a week just during her commute & reading for maybe a half hour before bed. She has, at the moment, about 350 books on her Nook e-Reader.

And we both give the other a knowing "go easy" glance when she walks into a Barnes & Nobel or I into a hobby shop.

[Dr. Cranky]

I build to stay focus on creativity, which is the best use of time. I try not to pay too much attention to what is going on in the real world, and certainly I do not waste any time listening to news or debating anyone else on absurd topics like politics and religion. Life is too short not to spend it building something.

[58 Impala]

I've loved cars since I was little, my dad taught me how to build models. I find it relaxing to build and detail car models, plus I can own every car I'd love to have 1:1 at a fraction of the cost.

Edited January 22, 2014 by 58 Impala

[Daddyfink]

I like car and its fun

[jaydar]

Truthfully, I am not sure. I usually tell people I like to work with my hands and it lets me solve problems that are NOT family or work related and I have done it since I was a little kid.

Joe.

[ZTony8]

I'm a car guy so building is a part of being that person.And it's cheaper than having all those builds as real cars!

It may be the wrong hobby for me,creatively speaking,because I have little artistic ability(stick men give me fits) and my build quality isn't what it should be for my years of experience.But I persist at it,thinking that some day my quality and production will improve-which is the very defintion of insanity.

Edited January 22, 2014 by ZTony8

[Jantrix]

Some people are left brained and analytical. Some are right brained and very creative. Me? I run right slap down the middle. So a hobby the requires engineering and creativity is my holy grail. Combine that with a deep appreciation for the automobile and what can be done with one, and here I am, building scale auto, and annoying you fellas.

[High octane]

It was something to do when I was a kid and I started building model kits awhile before the model car explosion arrived. I then started likin' model car kits and eventually 1 : 1 cars as well. I like being able to build cars that I can't afford to have in 1 : 1 scale due to lack of money and or room as well. I enjoy displaying my built model cars and also my die-cast collection in Curio cabinets that are in my living and family rooms.

[JM485]

To pick up chicks, duh!!!

Honestly though, I don't really have an answer for you. It's funny because I get frustrated when I come to a problem and wonder why I even bother, but then I feel a lot of satisfaction when I can overcome it and see the finished product on the shelf. I guess I really just like that there are so many possibilities and techniques to consider, and it keeps your mind sharp as you try to make everything work toward a finished product.

[uncle potts]

It's my sanity.

[Frank]

I built model cars when I was a kid. Then when I was a teenager I got into 1:1 cars building hot rods and eventually building a dragster.

When I retired and could not drag race anymore I started building models again to keep my brain active.

[cartpix]

I'm a gear head & I can have all the cars, I ever wanted, & they don't take any garage space. Plus, it's a great escape. And like JM485 said, chicks dig it.

[James2]

I enjoy creating vehicles I could never do in 1:1 due to available space and mainly cost!

And as the good Doctor said, it is a great way to keep the creativity going. I also enjoy wrenching and riding my old Shovelhead, but that hard to do when its 6deg. and snowing.

Besides, you meet the nicest people at a model show...

[lordairgtar]

I started as a kid. My grandfather bought me model cars when I went with him to Sears & Roebuck store. Yup, Sears had a second name then. They also sold models in it's small toy department. I'd go look at the models while grandpa was looking for tools in the Craftsmen department which was right next to the toys. Grandpa told me stuff I could never believe like Sears used to sell real cars out of the store (rebadged Henry J called an Allstate). My dad, on the other hand never got my fascination about cars.To him, they were appliances to provide transportation. My first was a 61 Mercury, soon followed by AMTs 57 T-Bird Craftsman series kit. Nearer to the house was a shop my grandpa went to get ammo and stuff for hunting. Through a narrow hallway was their hobby shop, mostly carrying Lionel and other trains. But they had models!!! They carried a lot of the IMC kits and that started a long love affair with their hard to build, often fiddly, but oh so realistic subjects. I think I massacred that poor little 48 Ford on the kitchen table at grandpas house. He saw you could make a 46, 47 and a 48 Ford from the kit by using different trim bits. He got two more of them for me to make the whole set of three. He also had all kinds of enamel paint in One Shot sized tins by Rust O Leum. I brush painted all my models. This was before I discovered Testor's and Pactra. In my teen years, it was a means of escape from school troubles and home problems.

When I left home and school, I became involved with The Jesus People and things like model cars and other hobbies were not encouraged. Traveled with a tent evangelist raising tents, fixing trucks and buses and working the portable kitchen to feed the hundreds of Jesus freaks that populated the ministry. i eventually left with issues. Having an intense love for Jesus but I lacked the discipline to live that kind of life. Kinda got messed up, and since they did not provide me with any kind of foundation, I fell away. hopped around the country for three years not having a home and depending on the kindness of hippies in communes and college kids who would take me in and let me crash in dorms or frat houses. I got so messed up, doing drugs of all kinds. Eventually I tried going back home but no one would help me out. Found work on my own and bought a $50 1964 Buick LeSabre and left for California. I was still without a home...but I had a CAR!!! I thought I was on top of the world. Still messed up though and some Christian brother told me about a ministry that helped people with my drug issues.

I became a resident of the Drug Abuse Preventive Center in Santa Barbara, California. Went through the whole program and wound up working there for eight years. It was as well a Christian community, but with a bit of a difference...hobbies were encouraged. Art, cooking, wood working, auto customizing, and model building. So yes, I built models as a past time and as therapy during the long 6 week restriction when you weren't allowed to go anywhere except with staff members on center business, and the weekend leisure trips to the mountains or dirt bike track. I became a staff member after my stint as resident and wound up running their gas stations, driving the truck to pick up things for the second hand store. Worked out of Santa Barbara, then on to santa Maria, then finally San Luis Obispo before going back to SB. Another difference was they taught a work ethic, because drugs kind of take that away. They were also not a twelve step program. Once done and confident that you are off of your particular addiction, you are cured. Faith in the healing power of Jesus. No "recovering" anything. I have been drug free since and have no desire to ever return to drugs.

So I build because of my love for cars and automotive history, to keep my focus, and for just plain fun. I also love talking up the hobby to others who may be looking for something to do, hobbywise.

Edited January 23, 2014 by lordairgtar